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October 29, 2013

Tundra Buggy Adventures in Churchill, Manitoba

So today I got to go on my Second and Final Tundra Buggy Adventures as part of my volunteering at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre in Churchill, Northern Manitoba. I will write about my time volunteering in another blog after I finish up my 6 weeks here later on this week, but now onto the Tundra Buggies.

Now Tundra Buggies are basically a huge purpose built bus on wheels over 1.5 metres in diameter that were designed to go over rugged terrain and just happen to be perfect for trying to find Churchill's most famous resident, the Polar Bear. Churchill is named Polar Bear Capital of the World, this may or may not be true but the population around here is the most accessible for people to come visit, particularly during the months of Oct-Nov when they seem to head towards Churchill. This is because this area is typically the first place in the Hudson Bay where the Sea Ice forms thick enough for Polar Bears to return out to see to hunt seal after being stuck on land since about July.

Tundra Buggy Adventures is the awesome Tour Company that I got to go with for free because I technically am still volunteering on the bus helping with making Hot Chocolates for the groups coming to the study centre for special Polar Bear Programs. Otherwise to pay for it individually it is about $400 so not a cheap day out.

So I got to go on two adventures- the first was on the 18th of October and the second was on the 28th and the difference in the landscape in these 10 days was quite interesting. The first tour we had really just had a small amount of snow so the landscape was only a little frozen and snow covered but now the landscape has become very wind blown (helped by the 70km winds we had) and sections of the bay were starting to freeze up. It was nice to see this interesting change in landscape which has been an ongoing and fast change since arriving to Churchill only 6 weeks ago.

Anyway, onto the Polar Bears! On the first trip, we saw a total of 7 bears including a Mother and her yearling cub (means the cub was born to Winter's before) and two males play fighting and sparring. The Mother and Cub were quite a rarity apparently and we didn't really know they were there until they snuck around the buggy ahead of us and started heading towards us not quite knowing what to do. In the end, once I pushed myself towards a window, I could see they got as close as 1 metre next to the bus when they walked past it and the cub was making a lot of noise (which you will never hear an Adult doing). It was a very special moment, especially when it was the first really close bears I had ever seen.
Mother and Yearling having a cuddle

Mother and Cubs heading away from the annoying buggies

After we could no longer see the Mum and it's Cub we kept going on the ex military roads through the Wildlife Management Area until we got to the Tundra Buggy Adventures Lodge (where people with a lot of money spend a fortune on staying in luxurious caravan like accommodation in the middle of the Tundra) where we spotted two Males being very cosy together and having a nap. We ended up watching these two for a while as they eventually got a bit active and play wrestled and some sparring to test out there limits of strength for when the real fighting happens on the ice over females. Needless to say it was a very distracted lunch out here, as the bears were very cute and were very interesting to watch especially how they interact with each other on land compared to the solitary life at ice. 
Two Males sniffing each other

Playfighting!

More Playfighting!

After watching them for a while we checked out another 2 Polar Bears that were hanging around near the lodge then started heading back. On the way back we went along a coastal area called Gordon Point to search for Arctic Fox we found a very cute young one camouflaged young one, after a few minutes it very quickly disappeared and that was the last of our animal sightings for my first Tundra Buggy Adventure.

The Second Tundra Buggy Adventure 10 days later was a lot colder and extremely windy so we didn't have a clue if we would see a few or many but we ended up seeing 12 Bears which was awesome. The first bear of the day was inspecting and leaning up against some other buggies ahead but it decided it just wanted to stroll past us, but he was still probably only 2 metres away from the bus.

Female right next to the buggy

We continued on and saw a few from a distance strolling along the coast and having a nap and then just before we got to the Lodge that had all the bear action last time, we came across at least 6 buggies checking out 2 sleeping bears. We decided to sit in this spot for a while and see what happened. Our patience paid off because we got to see them sparring at first off behind some Willows until a third (a little beat up!) bear came and crashed the party.

Two Males Sparring while the third comes in to crash the party

But after a while two of them got back into the action while the third one sat and watched. Luckily this time it was a little closer to the bus but we still had another buggy in the way most of the time.


Sparring

After they got tired of this they went there seperate ways and one of them went to go and lie in a Kelp bed which apparently is a favorite hangout for these bears during time on land.

Hanging out in the Kelp

We kept heading around the lodges and we were rewarded with seeing this big Male hanging around the Lodge. Apparently Big Males don't tend to head in this direction until a little closer to freeze up but we were glad to see him.

One Big Boy!!!

Eventually we got back out onto that Coast road and just came across 2 young Arctic Foxes chilling out next to the water. So cute and they are so tiny they couldn't walk straight in the strong winds.

Two Arctic Foxes! So cute!

After that it was time to head back to base, on the way we saw a few more Bears from a distance with gave us a great total of 12 bears.

As Polar Bears were my main reason for coming to Churchill, I was definitely not disappointed with the luck I had with the Bears on my two trips. It was so fascinating to get so close to these beautiful massive creatures that are so dangerous they have to be discouraged from coming into town. I would recommend it to anyone, even though the tour is expensive, it is something you do once and you treasure forever because there are not too many places you will get to be this close to a Polar Bear and not be at risk from being eaten.

The Tundra Buggy Adventures  is the company I went with and there are also two other companies that offer similar tours. Great White Bear that enters the same Management Area and Great Bear Lodge who can only stick to the public Coastal Roads and probably see less Bears.

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